NFL Thanksgiving Betting: New England Patriots at Detroit Lions

Added on Nov 24, 2010 by Jack Thurman in

NFL

Along with the Macy’s Parade and turkey dinners, the Detroit Lions playing football is one of the most enduring traditions of the Thanksgiving holiday. This year the improving Lions will host the New England Patriots in the 71st appearance for Detroit in a Thanksgiving Day football game. Detroit has been more competitive but are still in last place in the NFC North with a 2-8 SU record. The Patriots are tied with the New York Jets atop the AFC East with a record of 8-2.

New England Patriots at Detroit Lions
November 25, 2010 9:30 AM Pacific

The Detroit Lions playing football on Thanksgiving Day is one of the oldest traditions in the NFL. This year will be the 71st time Detroit has played host to a pro football contest on Thanksgiving Day. NFL betting enthusiasts will also find this game very interesting since the Lions have become one of the best pointspread teams in the league. The Patriots are clearly the better team, but the Lions’ ability to cover numbers makes this game very intriguing.

The Lions’ Thanksgiving tradition started in 1934 when team owner G.A. Richards was looking for a marketing angle to get his team some more notoriety among the sports fans of the city. Back then baseball was still the ‘National Pastime’ and despite being a very competitive team the Lions were overshadowed by the baseball Tigers. Richards scheduled a contest against the Chicago Bears for Thanksgiving Day, convinced NBC Radio to carry it coast to coast and a tradition was born. Fans jammed the stadium and a nationwide audience desperate for entertainment tuned in.

Technology has advanced, but the crux of the appeal of Thanksgiving football hasn’t much changed—Thursday’s game at Ford Field is already a sellout and a nationwide TV audience gorged on turkey and sick of dealing with relatives will tune in for NFL action. They’ll see a Lions team that has gone 7-2-1 against the pointspread spread try to break a run of bad performances on Thanksgiving Day. The Lions have lost 8 of the last 9 Thanksgiving games and have been especially non-competitive in the last two losing to Green Bay 34-12 and to Tennessee 47-10.

New England has also performed well against the spread this year going 5-4-1 and is coming off a win over the Indianapolis Colts. The Pats are tied with the New York Jets atop the AFC East at 8-2 and with the Jets taking on an underachieving Cincinnati team later in the day need to keep pace. Obviously a short week off of a tough game is a concern, but New England can’t afford to ‘phone in’ a substandard performance.

We respect the improvement in this Detroit team which has continued to compete despite starting quarterback Matthew Stafford missing most of the season due to injury. Having said that, this is a bad matchup for them against a motivated, veteran Patriots’ team. Detroit’s best running back, Jahvid Best, is listed as ‘doubtful’ with turf toe. He practiced on Tuesday and plans to play on Thursday but how effective he’ll be remains to be seen. Ultimately, we see the Patriots pulling away in the second half for a pointspread covering victory.

Bet New England Patriots -6′ over Detroit Lions